Let's see, what has been happening lately?
Elsie went to nursery for the first time! I have been somewhat apprehensive about leaving her in nursery. It wasn't so much that I was worried about how she would do there; it was more of I was worried that she would choke on something and puke all over all the kids & toys and they would ask us not to come back. I also have some concerns about all of the germy kids during winter, but I'll deal with that later. But anyway, she did great! No crying, no puking, I kinda wish we would have taken her there sooner. So there you go, Elsie's in nursery.
Our three months of "physical therapy" at Baby Gym ended a few weeks ago, and then we had our one-year evaluation with DDI (Early Intervention) who we get our physical therapy services through. We did some tests and evaluations, and it turns out, Elsie no longer needs any DDI services! She probably hasn't for a while, but they only do evaluations every six months, and besides, going to Baby Gym was pretty fun. She is testing at 21 months or higher for all of the sections of the test (Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Receptive Language, Expressed Language, Cognition) except for Self-Help, which most of the questions for that section deal with self-feeding, so yeah, that one was only at 18 months. But that's still no big deal. No more physical therapy! Elsie is caught up to where she should be. Who would have ever imagined that we would get to this point?
This week is a busy week for Elsie; she has a swallow study on Wednesday and an appointment with the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic on Thursday. The swallow study is just to make sure that Elsie doesn't have any mechanical or anatomical problems with her swallow, since she hasn't had a swallow study since she was in the NICU. And as always, I'm excited to go to the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic, I love seeing how she is doing in so many areas at one time. And I'm particularly excited this time to talk to the dietician some more about Blended Diet.
Elsie is getting more and more independent, enjoys playing outside and having books read to her, loves horses and dogs, and is good at torturing her older sister. Sometimes they get along well and it's really cute, and then there's the other times when they fight like cats and dogs.
We went back to the NBICU at the University of Utah and got to visit with a few of Elsie's nurses! It was really weird to be there. So many memories, so much time that we spent there. It's sort of surreal that Elsie has been home from the hospital for well over a year. She is doing so well now, and we are ever thankful to have this special child in our family. She has been a blessing in so many ways, despite the challenges with eating. I don't know if it's possible to communicate to the many nurses, neonatologists, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, and so many more who helped Elsie when she was a tiny baby, just how grateful we are.
Anyway, I shouldn't write these blog posts while simultaneously watching silly shows on Netflix. It ruins my concentration. Happy 21 months, Elsie!
